Peptides/Hormones and growth
Sermorelin
Also sold as Geref, GHRH 1-29
A prescription growth hormone booster from compounding pharmacies. Widely used in anti-ageing clinics, with modest evidence for those claims.
At a glance
What people use it for
- Sleep quality and recovery
- Body composition in middle age
- Marketed for energy and general wellbeing
- Diagnosing growth hormone deficiency in children
How it is taken
A nightly injection under the skin, on prescription from a compounding pharmacy.
Evidence
Mixed human evidence
Good to know
- Redness and irritation at the injection site
- Headache, flushing and occasional dizziness
- The anti-ageing claims rest on much weaker evidence than the diagnostic use
- Compounded products vary between pharmacies
Sermorelin is the first 29 amino acids of growth hormone releasing hormone, which is the active part. Like tesamorelin, it asks the pituitary to release growth hormone rather than replacing it, which keeps the body's own feedback controls in play.
It held a US licence for years under the brand Geref, used to test growth hormone deficiency in children. That product was withdrawn for commercial reasons rather than safety ones, and it now reaches patients through compounding pharmacies.
What people take it for
Anti-ageing clinics prescribe it for sleep, recovery, body composition and energy in people in their forties and beyond. Growth hormone falls with age, and the pitch is restoring some of that decline without the risks of injecting growth hormone itself.
Users most consistently report better sleep, which is plausible given that the largest natural growth hormone pulse happens in deep sleep.
What the evidence shows
Solid for its original purpose: it reliably provokes growth hormone release, which is exactly what a diagnostic test needs.
Much thinner for the reasons people actually buy it. Studies looking at body composition and wellbeing in healthy older adults are small, short and inconsistent. Nobody has run a large long-term trial of sermorelin for ageing, so the honest position is that the mechanism is sound and the outcomes are unproven.
What to know before
It is a real prescription medicine, which puts it well ahead of the research compounds on this site. It is still compounded rather than mass-manufactured, so consistency depends on the pharmacy.
Anyone hoping for the dramatic effects associated with growth hormone itself will be disappointed, and that is by design. Working through the body's own release mechanism produces a gentler and safer result.
Last reviewed .